Sainsbury’s and Asda in talks to merge
- Thread starter antijoke
- Start date
Pretty sure it isn't a Walmart acquisition of Sainsbury's - more information is coming on Monday. I'm not even sure Sainsbury's is doing a proper buy of Asda either.
Why would Wal-Mart want to own Sainsbury's? Its existing investment in the British supermarket industry hasn't exactly been a roaring success, and it's currently under a lot of pressure at home, mainly from Amazon. It would be a very strange move.
Depends on your perspective. Asda are currently one of the worst for paying dairy farmers a fair price. Sainsbury's are one of the best. Could milk cost you more going forward? Maybe. But there will be less of it sold below the cost of production.
You could equally argue that dairy farmers (across the EU) overproduce after market conditions changed (Russia stopped buying EU dairy products as a reaction to EU sanctions).
The price is very much a reflection of supply and demand.
For Amazon? No, legislation is too far behind reality. For Sainsbury and Asda? They'll just agree to sell a few stores.
Soldato
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First time I went to ALDI, that was the etiquette that the cashier told me. So it means fast scanning, into the trolley, then load up my backpack at the packing bay by the windows. It means that the customer turnover is quick and you're typically not queuing for as long as you would at other supermarkets. Plus, they are quick at opening new lanes if the lanes are full. You just look out for which lanes are lit green or red when approaching them and listen out for PA announcements. I find it easy and that's me partially hearing and partially sighted.
Yes the hourly rate is increasing above other supermarkets.
However paid breaks are being removed, yearly bonus is being removed and sunday rates are being removed.
Yet to be seen if the hourly rate will be kept higher than other supermarkets in the future or it's a one off to cover the loss of pay that colleagues would otherwise see from the contract changes.
Soldato
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Seems to me like this will have been initiated by Sainsbury's. Mike Coupe is making his big career move. Roger Burnley is ex-Sainsbury's, and they are friends, so I imagine the talks went fairly smoothly.
The deal doesn't really make sense to me. Two slowly declining supermarkets merge together, confuse and alienate their customer bases and they still won't compete with the discounters. I can see this failing and 10-15 years down the line getting bought out by a foreign giant like Metro AG.
Sainsbury's are still managing the inclusion of Argos, which has taken ages, progress slow and barely noticed. This is a much bigger merger, and logistically it's not clear how things would work.
The deal doesn't really make sense to me. Two slowly declining supermarkets merge together, confuse and alienate their customer bases and they still won't compete with the discounters. I can see this failing and 10-15 years down the line getting bought out by a foreign giant like Metro AG.
Sainsbury's are still managing the inclusion of Argos, which has taken ages, progress slow and barely noticed. This is a much bigger merger, and logistically it's not clear how things would work.
I wonder how it all will work, the media is really only focusing on the stores themselves and the customers. Thinking logistically I'm sure the depots will largely work in the same way as stores, Sainsbury's has been struggling with it's supply chain for a while and was one of the reasons they bought Argos so that potentially will help, next though is the IT side of things, they will be I'm sure similar systems but working in different ways, to cut costs they will need to adapt to integrate with each other, especially is sharing distribution centres. The biggest factor though I think will be the possibility of job losses, stores will be closing if they're side by side as it will make little sense to have them both doing the same thing, would staff from one site move to the neighbouring store or will there be more redundancies. Being an ex-employee myself, I know a lot of staff from several Sainsbury's stores and they aren't happy with the current renegotiation of their contracts.
Soldato
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To answer your question on IT they use a heavily customised version of the old italics (sp) Epos software.
They will be some overlap but from the little I do know about it they will still be a large amount of work to be done.
They will be some overlap but from the little I do know about it they will still be a large amount of work to be done.
Soldato
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My mum's other half is a delivery driver for Sainsburys and having listened to him telling me how that side of things is run, it's about as streamlined as a brick.
Personally, we use Ocado and have done for over 5 years now. Their website is far superior to the other supermarkets as is the overall experience.
Around 3 years ago, we did 1 shop at Lidl as a trial.
We struggled to get what we wanted and once home, I went onto the Ocado website armed with the Lidl receipt and put the cheapest products into the basket (taking into account sizes etc). Lidl had a slim lead on price right up until I added meat and then Ocado really lost out.
Saying that though, the meat we purchased from Lidl wasn't looking too clever before it's due date and went in the bin.
We still shop weekly with Ocado but all of our meat now comes from the local butchers and fruit and veg from the local farm shop.
It's cheaper and a better quality not to mention pumping a bit of money into local businesses.
Personally, we use Ocado and have done for over 5 years now. Their website is far superior to the other supermarkets as is the overall experience.
Around 3 years ago, we did 1 shop at Lidl as a trial.
We struggled to get what we wanted and once home, I went onto the Ocado website armed with the Lidl receipt and put the cheapest products into the basket (taking into account sizes etc). Lidl had a slim lead on price right up until I added meat and then Ocado really lost out.
Saying that though, the meat we purchased from Lidl wasn't looking too clever before it's due date and went in the bin.
We still shop weekly with Ocado but all of our meat now comes from the local butchers and fruit and veg from the local farm shop.
It's cheaper and a better quality not to mention pumping a bit of money into local businesses.
Soldato
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they better leave Asda prices alone, one of the cheapest supermarkets
they said they hope to reduce prices across the companies but we'll see
always found sainsburys about 20% more expensive for the exact same products
they said they hope to reduce prices across the companies but we'll see
always found sainsburys about 20% more expensive for the exact same products
Not sure I care too much about the merger between the two supermarket groups. I think more and more people recognise they can get a far better experience and value with the independent shops.
I do most of my shopping in Aldi and Lidl for the past seven years. Butchers, fishmongers and independent stores for other items. Before then, I mainly shopped in Waitrose for a number of years. I tend to use the large Sainsburys, ASDA and Tesco as corner shops for the odd items here or there! I can't stand Morrisons. Probably, the most backward supermarket group I've ever come across though I do agree their fishmongers and butchers are not bad. However, I'm not convinced their fish is really fresh and their free range chicken is actually free range.
Some of the own brand is actually the same or better quality than the brands. Some are actually made by the brands themselves. The premium Aldi pizzas are far superior to the JS ones through taste and generous toppings (compare weight size) even though the box size between the two is exactly the same size in area. Chances are, both products is likely JS has the cheek to charge roughly two pounds more for a below par product.
However, I do recognise there are many people who are conditioned by marketing. How many of them have the ability to recognise quality in a blind taste test? Not very many, I say. Price isn't always an indicator of quality.
I do most of my shopping in Aldi and Lidl for the past seven years. Butchers, fishmongers and independent stores for other items. Before then, I mainly shopped in Waitrose for a number of years. I tend to use the large Sainsburys, ASDA and Tesco as corner shops for the odd items here or there! I can't stand Morrisons. Probably, the most backward supermarket group I've ever come across though I do agree their fishmongers and butchers are not bad. However, I'm not convinced their fish is really fresh and their free range chicken is actually free range.
Some of the own brand is actually the same or better quality than the brands. Some are actually made by the brands themselves. The premium Aldi pizzas are far superior to the JS ones through taste and generous toppings (compare weight size) even though the box size between the two is exactly the same size in area. Chances are, both products is likely JS has the cheek to charge roughly two pounds more for a below par product.
However, I do recognise there are many people who are conditioned by marketing. How many of them have the ability to recognise quality in a blind taste test? Not very many, I say. Price isn't always an indicator of quality.
Associate
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There's no way this'll go through, especially if they say they don't plan on closing any stores down.
Competition law will be thrown all over this
Competition law will be thrown all over this